Jan. 15, 2065 AD: I was asleep when it all happened. I never knew what events led up to it, how it happened, or anything really, but what I did know was that I was scared. Incredibly so. I was woken with a jolt at the sound of a huge crack. Think of a redwood's trunk breaking, then amplify that by about 100 decibels. That about sums up how loud this sound was. Little did I know that this crack was the start of something I was forced to finish. Something I will be forced to finish, maybe until I die. I stood up, wondering what could have made that sound. I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, until I saw a small figure come down out of the air, streaking through the blood red sky. Then, the world started to shake, violently. It was like I was standing on a piece of tinfoil that had been put into a blender on High.. I looked down between my feet, and didn't like what I saw there. A large fissure had started to open up. I jumped to the right, landing on my back. The crack started to get longer, eventually going out of sight, and then it started to open up, more and more..... I never got a chance to see where the black thing in the sky landed. I also never got a chance to realize that that black thing was no less than Sonic the Hedgehog.Jan. 24, 2065 AD: At this point, I had noticed a few more things about the situation. The fissures had happened everywhere, causing the Earth to split in some places, being so harsh. I also realized that this plot was all due to another scheme of the self-proclaimed mad scientist, none less than Dr. Robotnik. Sonic, that goody- two shoes, was out trying to find all the Chaos Emeralds and restore power to them........ or something like that. I never paid much attention. In retrospect, I think it really would have been better if I had. He had apparently found all of the Emeralds and was of to try and stop the evil being called Dark Gaia that Robotnik had released from the Earth. I was certain that Sonic would destroy the thing, blah blah blah, we'd all live happily ever after, the end. Boy, how wrong I was.Jan. 26, 2065 AD: “Backup! Backup! I NEED B- AUGH!!” The radio transmitter went blank.“Send all the troops in!” the angry commander spat into his intercom.“B-But sir-” started the shaky officer's voice on the other end of the line.“NO BUTS!” The commander yelled. “I'm the one giving orders here! You will send in everything we've got, like your life depends on it!!... Because...... it does.. “”Yes, sir.” the officer said.”You heard the man!” He yelled into a megaphone. “Send 'em all in! Tanks, heavy gunnery, infantry, everything!” He put the megaphone down. “Oy... this isn't gonna end well.”“FIRE!” yelled the officer on the battlefield. Millions of gattlings went off, machine guns, and even bazookas from troops on rooftops. Bombers flew over head, tanks approached from all sides, and claymore charges went off underneath, but none even left a scratch on the monstrous purple being emanating with dark energy. “Sir... the officer said into his radio, stepping back. “Nothing's working... We need Sonic.””I know..” the comander said into his radio. “but he isn't here. Just keep it up, we'll figure out something...” he didn't really believe what he was saying.”Yes-” the line from the other end went dead. “...”“Officer?” the commander said into his radio. “Officer! Answer me! Officer!..... Oh my God..... GAAH--!” Those were the last words spoken into the radio transmitter that day, and in the days following, the monster left no survivors in his path. Eventually, there was just one more human left.Feb. 6, 2065 AD: “Why?!” the scientist yelled. “Why, Dark Gaia?! I brought you back to life!! You should be obeying me! WHY?!” his entire base, at that moment went up in flames. “Why?.... Why.... why..........” these were to be the last words spoken by Dr. Robotnik, or so thought the evil being. He had successfully destroyed all life.... except for one being. One being left. One porcupine, named Blade. This is where our story begins.

Chapter 1: Desolation

Feb. 6, 2066 AD: Blade woke with a start. He looked around, at first, unfamiliar of his surroundings, then the memories came flooding back to him. He groaned and put his head back down, awakening a new cloud of dust. “Another bad dream..” he grumbled. The 16- year- old brown porcupine had been experiencing these a lot lately, ever since the attack. He looked to his right at the old, cracked, cement wall of the broken down hotel he'd been staying at. He pulled a quill out and scratched a diagonal line through another row of ticks. “Days since the incident.......” he though to himself. “three hundred and sixty five.” He got up slowly and stretched his back out, then ambled over to the shattered window. “It's our anniversary.” he said out, to no one in particular, having long since known there was no one but him left. He heard a slight whirring coming from down the street, a couple of blocks away. “Oh no....” he ran over to the wall, and looked over his tallies. Every seventh day, he had put a circle around one of the ticks. He counted up the space between today's tick and the last circle. “1....2..” he counted, “7.” Hastily, he grabbed the quill and circled today's tally before grabbing his old, black, leather coat, and his army-style binoculars, and running upstairs to the roof. Every week, a large yellow and black robot came down the street, scanning, it seemed, for any signs of life. Blade had never been caught, and he wasn't about to. He couldn't follow the thing without being seen, so he didn't know where it stayed. Sure enough, the robot came down the street now. “well....” Blade said, again to no one in particular, “I guess it's time to do something...” he climbed up a flag pol on top of the building, and waited for the right moment. Right as the robot came underfoot, he shot down as fast as he could, rolled up, trying to hit the thing. The robot saw him coming, and lifted an arm above its head for protection. Blade bounced off and skidded down the street. The robot shot two red-hot lazers from its eyes, which Blade dodged. Blade started rolling in circles around the thing while it shot continuous lazers from its eyes.”Take this, scrap metal!” Blade rolled up the side of one building, and shot off of it at the robot. This time the robot grabbed him in its left hand. “What are you?!” Blade yelled at it. The robot said nothing and charged up a lazer in its chest. Blade pushed off of the robot's face with his legs, and came off, with the arm. Startled, the robot activated some jet thing in its back and flew off into the sky. “This ain't over!” Blade yelled, shaking its arm. He noticed the sun starting to set, as he had gotten up late in the day. “ I better get inside...” ever since the incident, beings that seemed to be imbued with dark energy came up from the ground at night, and most of them were too strong for Blade to fight. He ran in through the door, and up the stairs to “his” room, and turned on the old lamp at the desk to look at the arm. “Who are you....?” He read a label in yellow paint on the arm. “x- 333 ZETA.....”

Chapter 2: Information

''X-333..... ZETA?'' Blade said to himself, pondering. ''Hm... Odd name for a robot.'' The only series of robots Blade had ever heard of was the E-Series, which this ZETA was obviously not a unit of. ''Then, where did you come from?'' he rolled over to the opposite end of the room, toppled after hitting a crack in the cement, and got back up, grumbling. He pulled the chair over to the other desk and plopped down onto it. He pried open his MacBook and searched the internet for 'X-Series'. The internet had obviously not been updated for a while, but his server was still connected, even if it was a tad outdated. He scanned over a few search results, mumbling to himself. ''X, a Series of ten adventures.... No. SeriesX Spa Treatments.... No.'' After not finding anything, he saw a blurb at the bottom of the screen. Did you mean 'X Robotics'? ''Hm....'' Intrigued, he clicked the link. A flashy website opened up. At the top, it read, ''X Robotics! Tired of manual labor? So were we! Learn how we solved everyday problems with X Robots!'' ''How come I haven't heard of this before?'' He clicked the 'About Us' link. A message came up, saying he needed to download the newest version of a Reader to access the file, but unfortunately this file hadn't been updated on his computer before the Incident, so he couldn't access the new version. ''Crap!'' He shouted, slamming his fist onto the table. He noticed something on the internet page at the bottom. 'Last Updated-Feb. 1, 2065.' Blade paled. ''February 1st? How is that possible?!'' He suddenly heard a rustling outside and noticed the sky was dark. ''Crap.'' he said again. He hastily shut his computer and zipped the blinds. He put the robot arm under the mattress, saying ''I'm not done with you yet.'' and ran out onto the roof. He peered down, holding tightly to the flagpole that was being attacked by the harsh winds. Down on the ground, masses of purple-black energy formed into humanoid creatures, as they did every night. He took another step and his foot dangled dangerously over the edge. Then, a freak gust of wind blew the flagpole right off the building, and he was forced to let go. He fell to the ground and got up shakily. ''Ah,'' he said, as the creatures turned his way, glaring at him menacingly with red eyes. ''Crap.''

Chapter 3: Pankration

More and more of the black creatures craned their heads toward Blade. He walked slowly backwards. ''Heh....'' he said. ''Hi... Any chance you don't want to kill me?'' The one closest to him raised its arm and flung it forward towards him. A black spear like thing whirled toward him at high speeds that was emanating purple. Blade sidestepped to the right to avoid it, and the others all raised their arms. Blade grimaced. ''I thought not.'' He grabbed to climbing quills out from his back and climbed up the building to his right, the one he had fallen down, and moved left and right to avoid the spears. He jumped off the one on the right of the alley to the left, and in the air, counted all the creatures. ''Looks like.....'' he said, as he clasped onto the other building with his quills. ''....17.'' He leaped off the building and threw 4 regular quills at one of the frontmen, and it blew up. The one next to it, however, seemed to absorb the explosion, and grew a bit bigger. ''Are you kidding me?!'' Blade hit the ground and threw his two climbing quills at it, and they seemed to not harm it. Blade growled and ducked down to avoid two spears. He grabbed two heavy quills, one in each hand like daggers, and Ran up to the big one. He jumped in front of it, and slashed in an X across its torso. The enemy slashed his arm, exposing blood. Blade yelped but continued slashing until the enemy fell apart. Despite the pain in his arm, he hit the ground and blew up 5 of the enemies rushing to absorb their fallen brother. The remaining, back 10 absorbed the others until they were all twice the regular size. Blade grabbed his arm and rolled up the building on the right, and shot down like a meteor, creating a crater which blew away 4 of the creatures, they all hit the walls and exploded. He rolled through others, extending his quills, and kept rolling through them until they diminished. He had made on fatal mistake by not killing the remaining one. the other one hurried to absorb all the others, and he grew menacingly in front of Blade. He stopped growing once he was almost as tall as the buildings on either side. It roared menacingly at him. ''****.....'' Blade said. He winged 20 of his regular quills at it, hurting his arm more in the process, and losing a good chunk of his quills. They all bounced off harmlessly. The creature whipped its arm down and nearly destroyed the left building, and almost killing Blade with the impact. He rolled to the side, and slashed at its foot, to no avail. He rolled up the right building and stood at the top, ducking and rolling to avoid obscenely large spears. He then got out a precision quill, and threw it carefully at the exposed eye that was easier to hit from higher up. The creature roared in pain and held its hand up to its eye. Blade saw his chance. He whipped out two heavy quills in his hands, and rolled up, shooting out his quills. He rolled of the building after charging up and hit the creature as hard as he could. He flew up and hit it again, and again, and a fourth time. The creature fell backward onto the ground. Blade slammed down on its chest, and walked over to its neck. He slashed relentlessly at its neck with the quills, and then jumped off, cradling his arm. The creature in front of him, surprisingly, got up, and Blade swore. Then, it flew up into the sky, and blew up like fireworks. Blade groaned and walked back into the hotel. He climbed up to his room and sat at his desk taking out his first aid kit. He examined the gash in his arm and noticed it was purple inside. He ignored it and wrapped a bandage around it. ''Ungh....'' he groaned and slowly got into bed. He wiped his forehead with his hand and flopped onto the pillow, falling into a tumultuous sleep.

Chapter 4: Inundation

February 7; 2069; 2:16 AM''HRAH!'' a dark shape streaked through the sky, holding a sword with two hands above his head, secreting white energy. The shape crashed down onto a large darker figure with the sword, causing it to explode. Two other large purple beings on either side of it, but they were interrupted by two sharp brown spears that pierced through them and caused them to diminish. The remnants of all the purple creatures dissolved into the ground. ''Nice one, Kiera!'' the dark shape yelled in a deep voice, taking off his hat to reveal a dark black echidna. ''Same to you!'' a feminine voice said, approaching him. The light revealed a light brown echidna that looked younger, with her hair tied back behind her head. The two high-fived. ''Couldn't have done it without ya, Gareth.'' she said, nodding at him. ''Hm.'' Gareth said skeptically. The two walked along the beach back to their makeshift home. ''How many days?'' Gareth asked Kiera. she replied, ''I've lost count...'' Then, the ground started to tremble, causing Gareth to swear. The two looked around, then out to sea. off in the distance a wave that looked small from their point of view started to approach at massive speed. This ocean had been calm for the past year, since the Incident. Gareth swore again. The two started to rush back to the beach house, Gareth's face pale. ''Well,'' Kiera yelled to him. ''If water is so dangerous to you, why did we choose to live in California?!'' Gareth ignored her and yanked open the door, the wave getting dangerously close. The two ran in and grabbed their bags. Gareth grabbed his crucifix and shoved it in his bag, while Kiera grabbed the picture of their mother. They ran outside and off the beach, onto the street. Gareth grabbed Kiera's arm and shoved his sword into the ground. He put both hands around the hilt as Kiera grabbed onto his shoulders. He forced a wave of electricity down through the sword, forcing them up high into the air. He pushed forward and they landed on the top of a tall building right as the wave overtook the land. Gareth ran across the top of the building away from the beach, and forced himself up and over the top of it with his sword again, flying across to the other one. Kiera focused and pulled up a chunk of the earth from below and jumped onto it, carefully levitating it to carry her across. As Gareth kept leaping across the buildings, she floating over them on her platform, staying careful to focus. The water, by this point, was near the top of the buildings. They kept going until the reached the edge of the city, they were headed southeast. Gareth jumped onto her platform and sent a bit of electricity through her, giving her some more power. They floated above and along the road, and the wave seemed to subside a bit. Gareth sent shockwaves at it, cutting through the water and causing some of it to evaporate. He looked down at a sign by the road that read ''Grand Canyon, 13 miles.'' ''Keep going, Kiera!'' he yelled, as she noticed the sign. about a half hour later, they had stopped at the *** of the Grand Canyon, in Utah, the water a little ways behind them. Kiera was passed out in Gareth's arms. Gareth stepped backward a bit an ran at full speed at the edge. He leaped with all his might, forcing upward with electricity. they flew across a bit and Gareth added a little extra force to it. That was a mistake. The mass of speed caused Kiera to slip out of Gareth's arms. He swore as he landed on the edge, skidding across. He ran back and shot a beam of electricity in her direction as the water neared the other edge. He create a stasis field around her with his last bit of energy, and pulled her up with all his might as the water came crashing down dangerously near her. He flung her up and over the gap and ran about. He dived and caught her, and she woke with a start. The water filled the canyon almost perfectly, and started flowing to either side. ''What happened?!'' she asked. ''We're safe,'' he said, ''that's all that matters.'' He sat down next at the side f the Canyon and put her down, and she drifted back to sleep. ''Welcome to Arizona.'' he said softly, as he lay down on his pack and fell asleep.__________________